Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
INEXPRESSIBLY — INFLAMMABLE
INEXPRESSIBLY, adv. In a manner or degree not to be told or expressed in words; unspeakably; unutterably.
INEXPRESSIVE, a. Not tending to express; not expressing; inexpressible.
INEXPOSURE, n. [in and exposure.]
A state of not being exposed.
INEXPUGNABLE, a. [L. inexpugnabilis; in and expugno; ex and pugno, to fight.] Not to be subdued by force; not to be taken by assault; impregnable.
INEXSUPERABLE, a. [L. inexsuperabilis.]
Not to be passed over or surmounted.
INEXTENDED, a. Having no extension.
INEXTENSION, n. [in and extension.]
Want of extension; unextended state.
INEXTERMINABLE, a. [in and exterminable.]
That cannot be exterminated.
INEXTINCT, a. Not quenched; not extinct.
INEXTINGUISHABLE, a. [in and extinguishable.] That cannot be extinguished; unquenchable; as inextinguishable flame, thirst or desire.
INEXTIRPABLE, a. That cannot be extirpated.
INEXTRICABLE, a. [L. inextricabilis. See Extricate.]
1. Not to be disentangled; not to be freed from intricacy or perplexity; as an inextricable maze or difficulty.
2. Not to be untied; as an inextricable knot.
INEXTRICABLENESS, n. The state of being inextricable.
INEXTRICABLY, adv. To a degree of perplexity not to be disentangled.
INEYE, v.t. To inoculate; as a tree or a bud.
INFABRICATED, a. Unfabricated; unwrought. [Not used.]
INFALLIBILITY, INFALLIBLENESS, n. [from infallible.] The quality of being incapable of error or mistake; entire exemption from liability to error; inerrability. No human being can justly lay claim to infallibility. This is an attribute of God only.
INFALLIBLE, a. [L. fallo.]
1. Not fallible; not capable of erring; entirely exempt from liability to mistake; applied to persons. No man is infallible; to be infallible is the prerogative of God only.
2. Not liable to fail, or to deceive confidence; certain; as infallible evidence; infallible success.
To whom he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs--
INFALLIBLY, adv. Without a possibility of erring or mistaking.
1. Certainly; without a possibility of failure. Our Savior has directed us to conduct that will infallibly render us happy.
INFAME, v.t. To defame. [Not used.]
INFAMOUS, a. [L. infamis; infamo, to defame; in and fama, fame.]
1. Of ill report, emphatically; having a reputation of the worst kind; publicly branded with odium for vice of guilt; base; scandalous; notoriously vile; used of persons; as an infamous liar; an infamous rake or gambler.
2. Odious; detestable; held in abhorrence; that renders a person infamous rake or gambler.
3. Branded with infamy by conviction of a crime. An infamous person cannot be a witness.
INFAMOUSLY, adv. In a manner or degree to render infamous; scandalously; disgracefully; shamefully.
1. With open reproach.
INFAMOUSNESS, INFAMY, n. [L. infamia; in and fama, report.]
1. Total loss of reputation; public disgrace. Avoid the crimes and vices which expose men to infamy.
2. Qualities which are detested and despised; qualities notoriously bad and scandalous; as the infamy of an action.
3. In law, that loss of character or public disgrace which a convict incurs, and by which a person is rendered incapable of being a witness or juror.
INFANCY, n. [L. infantia. See Infant.]
1. The first part of life, beginning at the birth. In common usage, infancy extends not beyond the first year or two of life, but there is not a defined limit where infancy ends, and childhood begins.
2. In law, infancy extends to the age of twenty one years.
3. The first age of any thing; the beginning or early period of existence; as the infancy of the Roman republic; the infancy of a college or of a charitable society; the infancy of agriculture, of manufactures, or of commerce.
INFANDOUS, a. [L. infandus.]
Too odious to be expressed. [Not in use.]
INFANGTHEF, n. In English law, the privilege granted to lords to judge thieves taken on their manors, or within their franchises.
INFANT, n. [L. infans; in and fans, speaking, fari, to speak.]
1. A child in the first period of life, beginning at his birth; a young babe. In common usage, a child ceases to be called an infant within the first or second year, but at no definite period. In some cases, authors indulge a greater latitude, and extend the term to include children of several years of age.
2. In law, a person under the age of twenty one years, who is incapable of making valid contracts.
INFANT, a. Pertaining to infancy or the first period of life.
1. Young; tender; not mature; as infant strength.
INFANTA, n. In Spain and Portugal, any princes of the royal blood, except the eldest daughter when heiress apparent.
INFANTE, n. In Spain and Portugal, any son of the king, except the eldest or heir apparent.
INFANTICIDE, n. [Low L. infanticidium; infans, an infant, and coedo, to kill.]
1. The intentional killing of an infant.
2. The slaughter of infants by Herod. Matthew 2:16.
3. A slayer of infants.
INFANTILE, a. [L. infantilis.] Pertaining to infancy, or to an infant; pertaining to the first period of life.
INFANTINE, a. Pertaining to infants or to young children.
INFANTLIKE, a. Like an infant.
INFANTLY, a. Like a child’s.
INFANTRY, n. In military affairs, the soldiers or troops that serve on foot, as distinguished from cavalry; as a company, regiment or brigade of infantry. In some armies, there have been heavy-armed infantry, and light-armed or light infantry, according to their manner of arming and equipping.
INFARCE, v.t. infars. To stuff. [Not in use.]
INFARCTION, n. [L. infarcio, infercio, to stuff; in and farcio.]
The act of stuffing or filling; constipation.
INFASHIONABLE, a. Unfashionable. [Not used.]
INFATIGABLE, a. Indefatigable.
INFATUATE, v.t. [L. infatuo; in and fatuus, foolish.]
1. To make foolish; to affect with folly; to weaken the intellectual powers, or to deprive of sound judgment. In general, this word does not signify to deprive absolutely of rational powers and reduce to idiocy, but to deprive of sound judgment, so that a person infatuated acts in certain cases as a fool, or without common discretion and prudence. Whom God intends to destroy, he first infatuates.
The judgment of God will be very visible in infatuating a people, ripe and prepared for destruction.
2. To prepossess or incline to a person or thing in a manner not justified by prudence or reason; to inspire with an extravagant or foolish passion, too obstinate to be controlled by reason. Men are often infatuated with a love of gaming, or of sensual pleasure.
INFATUATED, pp. Affected with folly.
INFATUATING, ppr. Affecting with folly.
INFATUATION, n. The act of affecting with folly.
1. A state of mind in which the intellectual powers are weakened, either generally, or in regard to particular objects, so that the person affected acts without his usual judgment, and contrary to the dictates of reason. All men who waste their substance in gaming, intemperance or any other vice, are chargeable with infatuation.
INFAUSTING, n. [L. infaustus.] The act of making unlucky.
INFEASIBILITY, INFEASIBLENESS, n. s as z. [from infeasible.]
Impracticability; the quality of not being capable of being done or performed.
INFEASIBLE, a. s as z. [in and feasible, L. facio.]
Not to be done; that cannot be accomplished; impracticable.
INFECT, v.t. [L. inficio, infectus; in and facio.]
1. To taint with disease; to infuse into a healthy body the virus, miasma, or morbid matter of a diseased body, or any pestilential or noxious air or substance by which a disease is produced. Persons in health are infected by the contagion of the plague, of syphilis, of small pox, of measles, of malignant fevers. In some cases, persons can be infected only by contact, as in syphilis; in most cases, they may be infected without contact with the diseased body.
2. To taint or affect with morbid or noxious matter; as, to infect a lancet; to infect clothing; to infect an apartment.
3. To communicate bad qualities to; to corrupt; to taint by the communication of any thing noxious or pernicious. It is melancholy to see the young infected and corrupted by vicious examples, or the minds of our citizens infected with errors.
4. To contaminate with illegality.
INFECT, a. Infected. [Not used.]
INFECTED, pp. Tainted with noxious matter; corrupted by poisonous exhalations; corrupted by bad qualities communicated.
INFECTER, n. He or that which infects.
INFECTING, ppr. Tainting; corrupting.
INFECTION, n. [L. inficio.] The act of infecting, or the act by which poisonous matter, morbid miasmata or exhalations produce disease in a healthy body. The words contagion and infection are frequently confounded. The proper distinction between them is this. Contagion is the virus or effluvium generated in a diseased body, and capable of producing the specific disease in a healthy body by contact or otherwise. Marsh miasm is not properly contagion. Infection is any thing that taints or corrupts; hence it includes contagion, and any other morbid, noxious matter which may excite disease in a healthy body. Hence,
1. The morbid cause which excites disease in a healthy or uninfected body. This cause may be contagion from a diseased body, or other poisonous or noxious matter received into the body or under the skin. The infection of the plague and of yellow fever, is said to be imported in ships and conveyed in clothing; persons are said to take the infection from a diseased person, or from the air of apartments where the sick are confined. The infection spreads in a city, or it is free from infection. Pestilential exhalations are called infections.
Infection is used in two acceptations; first, as denoting the effluvium or infectious matter exhaled from the person of one diseased, in which sense it is synonymous with contagion; and secondly, as signifying the act of communication of such morbid effluvium, by which disease is transferred.
2. That which taints, poisons or corrupts by communication from one to another; as the infection of error or of evil example.
3. Contamination by illegality, as in cases of contraband goods.
4. Communication of like qualities.
Mankind are gay or serious by infection.
INFECTIOUS, a. Having qualities that may taint, or communicate disease to; as an infectious fever; infectious clothing; infectious air; infectious miasma.
1. Corrupting; tending to taint by communication; as infectious vices or manners.
2. Contaminating with illegality; exposing to seizure and forfeiture.
Contraband articles are said to be of an infectious nature.
3. Capable of being communicated by near approach.
Grief as well as joy is infectious.
INFECTIOUSLY, adv. By infection.
INFECTIOUSNESS, n. The quality of being infectious, or capable of communicating disease or taint from one to another.
INFECTIVE, a. Having the quality of communicating disease or taint from one to another.
INFECUND, a. [L. infoecundus; in and foecundus, prolific.]
Unfruitful; not producing young; barren.
INFECUNDITY, n. [L. infoecunditas.] Unfruitfulness; barrenness.
INFELICITY, n. [L. infelicitas. See Felicity.]
Unhappiness; misfortune.
1. Unfortunate state; unfaborableness; as the infelicity of the times, or of the occasion.
INFER, v.t. [L. infero; in and fero, to bear or produce.]
1. Literally, to bring on; to induce. [Little used.]
2. To deduce; to draw or derive, as a fact or consequence. From the character of God, as creator and governor of the world, we infer the indispensable obligation of all his creatures to obey his commands. We infer one proposition or truth from another, when we perceive that if one is true, the other must be true also.
3. To offer; to produce. [Not used.]
INFERABLE, a. That may be inferred or deduced from premises.
INFERENCE, n. A truth or proposition drawn from another which is admitted or supposed to be true; a conclusion. Inferences result from reasoning, as when the mind perceives such a connection between ideas, as that, if certain propositions called premises are true, the conclusions or propositions deduced from them must also be true.
INFEOFF. [See Enfeoff.]
INFERIOR, a. [L. comp. from inferus, low.]
1. Lower in place.
2. Lower in station, age, or rank in life. Pay due respect to those who are superior in station, and due civility to those who are inferior.
3. Lower in excellence or value; as a poem of inferior merit; cloth of inferior quality or price.
4. Subordinate; of less importance. Attend to health and safety; ease and convenience are inferior considerations.
INFERIOR, n. A person who is younger, or of a lower station or rank in society.
A person gets more by obliging his inferior, than by disdaining him.
INFERIORITY, n. A lower state of dignity, age, value or quality. We speak of the inferiority of rank, of office, of talents, of age, of worth.
INFERNAL, a. [L. infernus.]
1. Properly, pertaining to the lower regions, or regions of the dead, the Tartarus of the ancients. Hence,
2. Pertaining to hell; inhabiting hell; as infernal spirits.
3. Hellish; resembling the temper of infernal spirits; malicious; diabolical; very wicked and detestable.
INFERNAL, n. An inhabitant of hell, or of the lower regions.
Infernal stone [Lapis infernalis.] a name formerly given to lunar caustic, a substance prepared from an evaporated solution of silver, or from crystals of silver.
Lunar caustic is nitrate of silver fused and cast in small cylinders.
INFERTILE, a. [L. infertilis; in and fertilis.]
Not fertile; not fruitful or productive; barren; as an infertile soil.
INFERTILITY, n. Unfruitfulness; unproductiveness; barrenness; as the infertility of land.
INFEST, v.t. [L. infesto.] To trouble greatly; to disturb; to annoy; to harass. In warm weather, men ar infested with musketoes and gnats; flies infest horses and cattle. The sea is often infested with pirates. Small parties of the enemy infest the coast.
These, said the genius, are envy, avarice, superstition, love, with the like cares and passions that infest human life.
INFESTATION, n. The act of infesting; molestation.
INFESTED, pp. Troubled; annoyed; harassed; plagued.
INFESTERED, a. [in and fester.] Rankling; inveterate.
INFESTING, ppr. Annoying; harassing; disturbing.
INFESTIVE, a. [in and festive.] Having no mirth.
INFESTIVITY, n. [in and festivity.] Want of festivity, or of cheerfulness and mirth at entertainments.
INFESTUOUS, a. [L. infestus.] Mischievous. [Not used.]
INFEUDATION, n. [in and feudum, feud.]
1. The act of putting one in possession of an estate in fee.
2. The granting of tithes to laymen.
INFIDEL, a. [L. infidelis; in and fidelis; faithful.]
Unbelieving; disbelieving the inspiration of the Scriptures, or the divine institution of christianity.
The infidel writer is a great enemy to society.
INFIDEL, n. One who disbelieves the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the divine origin of christianity.
INFIDELITY, n. [L. infidelitas.]
1. In general, want of faith or belief; a withholding of credit.
2. Disbelief of the inspiration of the Scriptures, or the divine original of christianity; unbelief.
There is no doubt that vanity is one principal cause of infidelity.
3. Unfaithfulness, particularly in married persons; a violation of the marriage covenant by adultery or lewdness.
4. Breach of trust; treachery; deceit; as the infidelity of a friend or a servant. In this sense, unfaithfulness is most used.
INFILTRATE, v.i. To enter by penetrating the pores or interstices of a substance.
INFILTRATING, ppr. Penetrating by the pores or interstices.
INFILTRATION, n. The act or process of entering the pores or cavities of a body.
1. The substance which has entered the pores or cavities of a body.
Calcarious infiltrations, filling the cavities of other stones.
INFINITE, a. [L. infinitus; in and finitus, terminated.]
1. Without limits; unbounded; boundless; not circumscribed; applied to time, space and qualities. God is infinite in duration, having neither beginning nor end of existence. He is also infinite in presence, or omnipresent, and his perfections are infinite. We also speak of infinite space.
2. That will have no end. Thus angels and men, though they have had a beginning, will exist in infinite duration.
3. That has a beginning in space, but is infinitely extended; as, a line beginning at a point, but extended indefinitely, is an infinite line.
4. Infinite is used loosely and hyperbolically for indefinitely large, immense, of great size or extent.
Infinite canon, in music, a perpetual fugue.
INFINITELY, adv. Without bounds or limits.
1. Immensely; greatly; to a great extent or degree; as, I am infinitely obliged by your condescension.
INFINITENESS, n. Boundless extent of time, space or qualities; infinity.
1. Immensity; greatness.
INFINITESIMAL, a. Indefinitely small.
INFINITESIMAL, n. An indefinitely small quantity.
INFINITIVE, a. [L. infinitivus.]
In grammar, the infinitive mode expresses the action of the verb, without limitation of person or number; as, to love.
INFINITUDE, n. Infinity; infiniteness; the quality or state of being without limits; infinite extent; as the infinitude of space, of time, or of perfections.
1. Immensity; greatness.
2. Boundless number.
INFINITY, n. [L. infinitas.]
1. Unlimited extent of time, space or quantity; boundlessness. We apply infinity to God and his perfections; we speak of the infinity of his existence, his knowledge, his power, his goodness and holiness.
2. Immensity; indefinite extent.
3. Endless or indefinite number; a hyperbolical use of the word; as an infinity of beauties.
INFIRM, a. inferm’. [L. infirmus; in and firmus.]
1. Not firm or sound; weak; feeble; as an infirm body; an infirm constitution.
2. Weak of mind; irresolute; as infirm of purpose.
3. Not solid or stable.
He who fixes on false principles, treads on infirm ground.
INFIRM, v.t. inferm’. To weaken. [Not used.]
INFIRMARY, n. inferm’ary. A hospital or place where the sick are lodged and nursed.
INFIRMITY, n. inferm’ity. [L. infirmitas.]
1. An unsound or unhealthy state of the body; weakness; feebleness. Old age is subject to infirmities.
2. Weakness of mind; failing; fault; foible.
A friend should bear a friend’s infirmities.
3. Weakness of resolution.
4. Any particular disease; malady; applied rather to chronic, than to violent diseases.
5. Defect; imperfection; weakness; as the infirmities of a constitution of government.
INFIRMNESS, n. inferm’ness. Weakness; feebleness; unsoundness.
INFIX, v.t. [L. infixus, infigo; in and figo, to fix.]
1. To fix by piercing or thrusting in; as, to infix a sting, spear or dart.
2. To set in; to fasten in something.
3. To implant or fix, as principles, thoughts, instructions, as, to infix good principles in the mind, or ideas in the memory.
INFIXED, pp. Thrust in; set in; inserted; deeply implanted.
INFIXING, ppr. Thrusting in; setting in; implanting.
INFLAME, v.t. [L. inflammo; in and flamma, flame.]
1. To set on fire; to kindle; to cause to burn; in a literal sense. But more generally,
2. To excite or increase, as passion or appetite; to enkindle into violent action; as, to inflame love, lust or thirst; to inflame desire or anger.
3. To exaggerate; to aggravate in description.
A friend exaggerates a man’s virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes. [Unusual.]
4. To heat; to excite excessive action in the blood; as to inflame the blood or body; to inflame with wine.
5. To provoke; to irritate; to anger.
6. To increase; to exasperate; as, to inflame the enmity of parties, or the spirit of sedition.
7. To increase; to augment; as, to inflame a presumption.